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A
Statement of Conscience -
Not
In Our Name |
The Statement
of Conscience shares the politics and vision of the Not In Our
Name Project and has been signed by an extraordinary list of public intellectuals
and artists including (just to mention a few) Mos Def, John Edgar Wideman,
Barbara Kingsolver, Ossie Davis, Noam Chomsky, Eve Ensler, Tony Kushner,
Edward Said, Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker and Howard Zinn. New signatories
are being added every day, and there are plans to spread word of this statement
throughout the US and the world - to make clear that many of the most beloved
and respected artists and intellectuals in this country condemn the policies
of this government as not simply mistaken but immoral, illegitimate and
illegal -- and they will resist them.
The Statement of Conscience
was the subject of an article in The Guardian (U.K.) June 14, 2002, entitled,
"U.S. Artists Damn 'war without limit'".
Visit the Statement of
Conscience website:
www.nion.us
to read and sign the statement, view an updated
list of signatories, to contribute to the Statement of Conscience project,
and much more. |
Click here to read
Statement
of Conscience in other languages.
A
Statement of Conscience:
Not in Our Name
Let it not be said that people
in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without
limit and instituted stark new measures of repression.
The signers of this statement
call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political
direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave
dangers to the people of the world.
We believe that peoples and
nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military
coercion by great powers. We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted
by the United States government should have the same rights of due process.
We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and
protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested
and must be fought for.
We believe that people of conscience
must take responsibility for what their own governments do — we must first
of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call
on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed
on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate.
We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.
We too watched with shock the
horrific events of September 11, 2001. We too mourned the thousands of
innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage — even
as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation
ago, Vietnam. We too
joined the anguished questioning
of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could happen.
But the mourning had barely
begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge.
They put out a simplistic script of “good vs. evil” that was taken up by
a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that asking why these terrible
events had happened verged on treason. There was to be no debate. There
were by definition no valid political or moral questions. The only possible
answer was to be war abroad and repression at home.
In our name, the Bush administration,
with near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated
to itself and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhereand
anytime. The brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to
Palestine, where Israeli tanks and bulldozers have left a terrible trail
of death and destruction. The government now openly prepares to wage all-out
war on Iraq — a country which has no connection to the horror of September
11. What kind of world will this become if the U.S. government has a blank
check to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?
In our name, within the U.S.,
the government has created two classes of people: those to whom the basic
rights of the U.S. legal system are at least promised, and those who now
seem to have no rights at all. The government rounded up over 1,000 immigrants
and detained them in secret and indefinitely. Hundreds have been deported
and hundreds of others still languish today in prison. This smacks of the
infamous concentration camps for Japanese-Americans in World War 2. For
the first time in decades, immigration procedures single out certain nationalities
for unequal treatment.
In our name, the government
has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President’s spokesperson
warns people to “watch what they say.” Dissident artists, intellectuals,
and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The
so-called USA PATRIOT Act — along with a host of similar measures on the
state level — gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised
if at all by secret proceedings before secret courts.
In our name, the executive has
steadily usurped the roles and functions of the other branches of government.
Military tribunals with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to
the regular courts are put in place by executive order. Groups are declared
“terrorist” at the stroke of a presidential pen.
We must take the highest officers
of the land seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation
and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly
imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures
and manipulates fear to curtail rights.
There is a deadly trajectory
to the events of the past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted.
Too many times in history people have waited until it was too late to resist.
President Bush has declared: “you’re either with us or against us.” Here
is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people.
We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences
in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME.
We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that
they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to
those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our
solidarity in word and deed.
We who sign this statement call
on all Americans to join together to rise to this challenge. We applaud
and support the questioning and protest now going on, even as we recognize
the need for much, much more to actually stop this juggernaut. We draw
inspiration from the Israeli reservists who, at great personal risk, declare
“there IS a limit” and refuse to serve in the occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza.
We also draw on the many examples
of resistance and conscience from the past of the United States: from those
who fought slavery with rebellions and the underground railroad, to those
who defied the Vietnam war by refusing orders, resisting the draft, and
standing in solidarity with resisters.
Let us not allow the watching
world today to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead,
let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and
repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it.
Signed by Seattle
Area Endorsers. (select to view the list). |